The Center
Kumankaya offers the freedom of solitude, the energy of the jungle with its diverse abundance of life, and eco-conscious accommodations. We pride ourselves on the ecliptic style of our structures blending the traditional wooden bungalow with the Maya Riviera architecture.
From the very beginning, it was extremely important to us to hire primarily Mayan builders — to honor the lineage of the land. We've had the same crew of Mayan masons since the very beginning, and they have erected nearly every single structure at Kumankaya.
Our Facilities
All of our habitations are elevated, which is why we chose to name our center Kumankaya based on a Peruvian legend of the mystical flying village of Kumankaya. We decided to elevate our structures because it is fresher, the view is better, and of course less insects. In addition, we have rock formations, called lomas, all over our land, so it was fun to incorporate those natural features into the building of Kumankaya.
Our wooden bungalow is built in the Mexican log cabin tradition. It contains two habitations, a central shared bathroom and a lounge area. Our other two bungalows are built in the Maya Riviera style with ceramic floors, stucco white walls and thatch roofs. Both of these buildings have private bathrooms and private terraces as well.
The maloka (our ceremonial house) is orientated toward the four cardinal directions with the entrance facing east. It is the highest structure located directly west from the main house. The maloka can accommodate between 12-14 individuals with a bridge connecting it to the bathrooms, where there are two private toilets, two private showers and a shared wash basin. Thus far, none of our accommodations have electricity, but after one night under the Yucatan night sky, you will understand why.
We really feel that our land and facility are still to be discovered. In the future, we would like to open our cenote (underground, fresh water pool), build a temazcal, add more solar panels, and build more housing / facilities to accommodate more people and improve the quality of life at Kumankaya. We want all our facilities to be as eco-conscious as possible, made in the traditional way but also providing minimal modern comforts.
Meals
At the main house, there is an outdoor kitchen and lounge area available to visitors. There, they are welcomed to lounge around, share, and heat up their own hot water to make tea.
For plant medicine retreats, an outdoor dining room is also where plant medicine-friendly food will be served, consisting of oatmeal, plantains, chapo, rice, quinoa, beans, sodium-free pasta, sodium-free corn tortillas, lentils, tilapia, and potatoes. Fresh apples and bananas will be available all day as well. Visitors will be notified of meal times: Typically, breakfast is served around 10:00am and dinner at 4:00pm on off-ceremony days. When there is ceremony, breakfast is served around 9:00am and lunch at 1:00pm; there will be no dinner served on the evenings of ceremony. On ceremony days, we ask participants not to eat apples and bananas after 3:00pm. For non-plant medicine retreats, we will create a schedule and menu based on dietary restrictions, healing expectations, and daily activities.
The Land
Living in the jungle has made us realize, more so than ever, the delicacy of this ecosystem. We recognize that we are a part of this rich and diverse habitat, and, as a result, we try to mitigate our impact. This means only using that which we need, creating opportunities to be as self-sufficient as possible, and minimizing the types of products we use and the waste we produce. We want to live in balance and in gratitude with nature.
Kumankaya sits on 11 hectares, roughly 27 acres of land. However, we plan to use less than a fourth of that land for development. Instead, the remaining 20 acres are maintained exclusively for protection and conservation of the Mayan jungle. Recently, our only neighbor (from whom we bought the land) has registered a portion of the surrounding jungle in a governmental conservation program. Positioned throughout the jungle are 4 motion-sensor cameras, which have filmed jaguars, pumas, wild boars, deer, armadillos along with other types of small rodents. This allows us to observe a large panel of the fauna of the Yucatan jungle.
We strive to be as self sufficient as possible. We have solar power and our well has access to the purest, most mineral rich water. In fact, there are no above-ground rivers in the Yucatan peninsula; all the fresh-water rivers are below ground. When building our well, we tapped into two river systems before settling our submersible pump 14 meters deep. And because of the Yucatan's porous limestone bedrock, these underground rivers contain some of the richest and purest water on the planet. Though, right now, we cannot drink our water, because the heavy minerals are difficult for the body to process, we plan to construct a ecological water filtration system (sand, charcoal, and UV light) in the future so we will be able to do so.
